SA woman hit by lightning inside her home ‘lit up like a Christmas tree’

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A woman in the states south-east has made a speedy recovery after being shocked by lightning in her own home. While it is rare for lightning to hit someone inside a house, experts say it can happen, and there are ways to prevent it.

Transcript

00:00Sarah Eccles-Smith is back at work, after suffering the shock of her life.

00:08My whole arm lit up like a Christmas tree, it was basically white, and I dropped my knees,

00:14floored me, I screamed, it was just a horrifying feeling, my heart was racing a million miles

00:21an hour.

00:22Miss Eccles-Smith believes the strike hit her Rocky Camp house near Millicent directly,

00:27putting her in hospital and singeing her carpet.

00:29Turned the power point off, the light switch off in the passageway, and at the very same

00:35time lightning struck and got me.

00:38Electrical engineer Dr Keith Kickett says Miss Eccles-Smith's timing was extremely unlucky.

00:45It's so unlikely because you'd have to touch the light switch, the lady would have touched

00:51the light switch exactly at the same time as the lightning hit.

00:55There were 46,000 lightning strikes recorded during Monday's storm in the Lower South-East

01:00region, sparking more than 100 fires.

01:03Dr Kickett says anyone worried about their home being hit by lightning can find their

01:08earth stake and give it some special treatment.

01:11It's actually quite a good idea for people to just occasionally water the earth stake,

01:21or get your dog to wee on it, it'll be very good.

01:26Solar panels also provide protection.

01:28The solar panels will be earthed, so that will provide protection for you from a direct

01:34hit.

01:35Miss Eccles-Smith is just thankful to have made such a quick recovery.

01:38Yep, back at work the next day, no rest for the wicked, or the fried, and I fixed the

01:44carpet myself.

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